Rusty/Behind the Scenes
Background Information The Railway Series Rusty is a fictional narrow gauge diesel locomotive created by the Rev. W. Awdry. He is the No. 5 engine on the Skarloey Railway. Rusty is described as a friendly, calm and caring diesel. Rusty's name is a portmanteau after his builders, Rust''on and Hornsb''y. He first appeared in the Railway Series book, The Little Old Engine, which was published in 1959. His last appearance was in New Little Engine, published in 1996. Front of Rusty: File:RustyillustratedbyJohnTKenney.png|1958 Rusty as illustrated by John T. Kenney (1959) File:RustyillustratedbyEdgarHodges.png|1979 Rusty as illustrated by Edgar Hodges (1979) File:MainRustyRWS.png|1982 Rusty as illustrated by Clive Spong (1985) 'Rear of Rusty:' File:RustyillustratedbyJohnTKenney2.png|1958 Rusty as illustrated by John T. Kenney (1959) File:RustyillustratedbyGunvorandPeterEdwards.png|1965 Rusty as illustrated by ''Gunvor and Peter Edwards (1965) File:RustyillustratedbyCliveSpong2.png|1996 Rusty as illustrated by Clive Spong (1996) In The Thomas Way DVD, the Mr. Perkins segment features a re-illustrated version of the story Trucks! where Rusty is depicted in his television series livery. File:RustyreillustratedbyLoraineMarshall.png|1958 Rusty as re-illustrated by Loraine Marshall (2013) Rusty is based on the Talyllyn Railway No.5 locomotive, Midlander. Several events that occurred with Midlander were mirrored with his fictional counterpart. The locomotive has also been used by the Talyllyn Railway to represent Rusty in real life. File:Midlander.jpeg|Rusty's basis, Midlander File:Midlander.jpg|Midlander with a new radiator File:MidlanderasRusty.jpg|Midlander disguised as Rusty Television Series In 1995, Rusty was introduced in Series 4 of Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends. The season placed a great focus on the Narrow Gauge characters, with a number of stories from the original books televised. In the Railway Series, Rusty was painted black. Whereas, Rusty is painted orange (presumably to match his name). After being absent with the other Narrow Gauge engines for Series 8, Rusty returned to the series in the following series. In the classic era of Thomas & Friends, Rusty is portrayed as a friendly diesel and dedicated worker. However, as the series progressed, Rusty's character gradually becamed altered under the influence of HiT Entertainment. In the HiT era, Rusty had an occasional habit of being impatient, careless, and prone to procrastination. When the show transitioned into full CGI in 2009, the narrow gauge engines were absent for three years. Rusty later returned in the 2012 special, Blue Mountain Mystery, along with Skarloey, Rheneas, Sir Handel and Peter Sam. In the CGI series, he was seen frequently working at the Blue Mountain Quarry. Since Series 19, the Skarloey Railway has been underutilised, this may be due to the fact that Mattel, the current owner of the Thomas franchise, have deemed them too obscure and pointless, as they seem to prioritize standard gauge engine episode. According to a New York Times article from 1995, Britt Allcroft intended to make Rusty gender neutral. Because of this, the Series 4 episodes removed or changed any instance of Rusty being referred to in gender-specific pronouns, as the original Railway Series stories refer to him as male. Throughout Series 4 to Series 7, Rusty was referred as "the Little Diesel" or by name. It was not until Series 9 that Rusty was referred to in gender-specific pronouns in the episodes, Tuneful Toots and Duncan and the Old Mine. The UK dub now referred to Rusty as male, whereas the original US dubs referred to Rusty as female. The US dub was later edited for their DVD releases, now identifying Rusty as male. Since his return in 2012, Rusty has been voiced by Matt Wilkinson in both the British English and American English dubs of the series. Matt Wilkinson gives Rusty a West Country accent. Behind the Scenes O gauge model (Small scale) Rusty's small model was custom built from brass by model maker, Peter Eves to run on O gauge track to the Gauge 1 Scale Standard during production of Series 4. It was painted using glossy car body paint and lined with yellow Letraline pin-striping tape. The number and nameplates were custom printed stickers. Rusty's wheels were sourced from unspoked SM32 "Quarry Hunslet" wheels. These wheels were used on an O gauge locomotive chassis. The buffers were sourced from Slater's Plastikard as well, with most engines using the square based short sprung buffers. Eight different facial expressions were sculpted for Rusty, although only seven were used onscreen. The faces were first sculpted in clay and from that resin casts were made of a silicone mould. File:RustyFront.png|Series 4 Rusty Model Specification CM/INCH (Front) File:RustyBack.png|Series 4 Rusty Model Specification CM/INCH (Back) File:RustyLeft.png|Series 4 Rusty Model Specification CM/INCH (Left Side) File:RustyRight.png|Series 4 Rusty Model Specification CM/INCH (Right Side) The model had a motor to power it mounted inside the chassis as well as an eye mechanism. There was no room to fit a battery and receiver needed for the R/C eyes. Wires connecting to the battery, servo and receiver were usually hidden off camera or carried in rolling stock behind the engine. The eye mechanism used servos mounted in the cab; the servos were hidden by blacking out the cab doors and windows. Metal rods went from the servos in the cab to a bracket in the smoke box behind the faceplate, one for up and down movement and one for left and right movement. This limited the range of movement of the eyes as well as being cumbersome and jamming often. Rusty is nearly twice the size of his basis. This was so his eye mechanism and motor could be accommodated. File:RustyFaceGuide1.png|Rusty's faces In the fourth series episodes, Rusty to the Rescue and Thomas and Stepney, Rusty was seen with a headlamp above his radiator. This was powered by a hidden battery pack. RustytotheRescue26.png|Rusty with a lamp File:RustytotheRescue39.png ThomasAndStepney15.png The small scale Rusty model was predominantly used in the fourth series. It was used in the fifth series for in between shots where they would interact with the gauge 1 scaled characters and sets. It then appeared via stock-footage in the seventh series episode, Trusty Rusty. The small scale model made its last appearance in 2005 special, Calling All Engines! File:CallingAllEngines!190.png|Rusty's small scale model in Calling All Engines! CallingAllEngines!330.jpg|Lady with Rusty O gauge model (Large scale) For ease of filming and reliability, Series 5 introduced larger-scale versions of the narrow gauge engines, and from Series 6-12, these models were used almost exclusively. The larger-scale models were built to a larger scale than the gauge 1 engines and ran on O gauge track. They were close to 16mm scale, but slightly larger. There were 9 different facial expressions worn by Rusty on screen. The faces were first sculpted in clay and from that resin casts were made of a silicone mould. Most notability, he received a much larger face than his previous small scale model counterpart. File:RustyFaceGuide2.png|Rusty's faces The model was made from brass. The wheels and chassis were custom machined (CNC). The model was track powered, so pickup contacts were attached to the metal wheels, which ran into the motor to power it. The electricity ran from the track to the wheels/pickup contacts and went into the motor to power him. The eye mechanism had two servos, one for up and down movement and one for left and right movement. The up/down servo was attached to the body. The left/right servo had a rod attached to the arm, which connected to a bracket. The eye balls were coupled to the bracket and locked in by the face-plate, so whenever the servos were powered, the eye balls would move however the crew member desired. File:S5RustyHeadonpromo.png|Rusty's O gauge model (large scale) File:Rusty-front.jpg|2004 promo (Note: he has a yellow bufferbeam and a missing coupling) File:RustyandtheBoulder46.png|A side view of Rusty The twelfth series marked the beginning of the show's transition into CGI and the characters' faces were animated through CGI with the aid of motion capture animation. The physical models' moulded faces were replaced by white targets with triangles to fix a computer-animated face in post-production. In addition, Rusty's face decreased in size to its original Series 4 size. File:ThePartySurprise27.png|Rusty with a CGI face File:TheManintheHills7.png File:PushMe,PullYou49.png File:PushMe,PullYou55.png Rusty's model has had many modifications and changes from its small scale counterpart throughout the television series. These include: * Series 5: ** Larger face. ** His grey buffers became silver. ** Part of his radiation cap became black. * Series 6: ** His paint was given a matte finish. ** His silver buffers became black. * Series 9: ** He receives a two tone horn, which is almost similar to Brum's from the TV show of the same name. ** He gains a tail lamp. * Series 12: ** His face went back to its Series 4 size. Rusty's large scale model was previously on display at Nitrogen Studios in Canada. It is now currently on display at the Hara Model Railway Museum in Japan. File:Rusty'sModelBTS.jpg|Rusty's model at Nitrogen Studios File:RustyHaraRailwayModel.jpeg|Rusty's model at Hara Railway Museum File:RustyHaraModelRailway.jpg Close-up model A larger-scale model of Rusty was built in the fourth series. It was required for scenes where he had to interact with the close-up scale figures. The model was made in pieces so it was able to be dismantled and resemble. In addition, most of the close-up scale models were usually not built as complete models, on top of the fact the faces would most often never need to be seen in this scale. Unlike both his O gauge models, Rusty's front and back cutout windows had glass. These were removed in Series 5. It appeared in the fourth, fifth and sixth series. File:Trucks14.png File:RustyandtheBoulder51.png|Rusty's driver and cab File:RustyandtheBoulder55.png File:DunkinDuncan38.png File:RustySavestheDay9.png In the fourth series episode, Trucks, the cylinder on the front of Rusty's cab was incorrectly placed on the back of his cab and his engine is missing. In the fifth series episode, Rusty and the Boulder, Rusty's close-up model was reused for Rheneas as a model of this scale did not exist for Rheneas. This was achieved by a close-up shot of Rusty's circular cab porthole which resembled one of Rheneas'. CGI model In 2009, the series introduced Computer-Generated Imagery (CGI) as a replacement for the show's long-standing live-action models. Rusty was recreated from scratch in CGI by Nitrogen Studios in 2010 for production of the 2012 special Blue Mountain Mystery. His model was "hand-sculpted" in Maya, a 3D animation and modelling software. Photographs of Rusty's large scale model were used for referencing. According to Greg Tiernan, every detail of the original television series models for each character is carefully reproduced in the CGI model. The models are subjected to many rounds of review before they are submitted to HiT Entertainment for final input and approval. In addition, Nitrogen Studios went to the Talyllyn Railway and took photographs of Rusty's basis, Midlander to use for referencing purposes. Unlike his basis, Rusty is nearly twice the size of Midlander in the television series and was never fitted with a different shaped radiator. So when Rusty returned in CGI, he was the same larger size and retained Midlander's original designed radiator for continuity reasons. Rusty has had modifications throughout the CGI era. These include: * Blue Mountain Mystery: ** Face went back to its Series 5 size. ** Added air vents and starter outlets on his sides. ** Rivet detailing on his cab. ** More accurate chassis to his basis. ** A slightly altered version of his new horn sound effect. File:CGIRustyPromoTransparent.png|CGI model File:CGIHead-onRustyPromo.png|Head-on CGI promo File:RustyCGIPromo.jpg Voice Actors * Matt Wilkinson (UK/US) * Hideo Ishikawa (Japan; fourth - seventh series) * Tokuyoshi Kawashima (Japan; ninth series onwards) * Arash Marandi (Germany; Blue Mountain Mystery - sixteenth series) * Achim Buch (Germany; seventeenth series onwards) * Stan Limburg (The Netherlands) * Scott Maurstad (Norway; Blue Mountain Mystery only) * Christian Greger Strøm (Norway; sixteenth - seventeenth series) * Luis Daniel Ramírez (Latin America; Blue Mountain Mystery onwards) * Krzysztof Szczerbiński (Poland; Blue Mountain Mystery - seventeenth series) * Grzegorz Kwiecień (Poland; eighteenth series onwards) * Carlos Moreno (Spain; Blue Mountain Mystery onwards) * Alexander Kotov (Russia; sixteenth series onwards, excluding the seventeenth series) * Denis Bespaliy (Russia; seventeenth series only) * Jukka Voutilainen (Finland; Blue Mountain Mystery onwards) * Haris Grigoropoulos (Greece) References Category:Behind the Scenes Category:Images of Rusty Category:Images from behind the scenes